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)

"weak, effeminate men", from sis(ter). Singular 'cissy'

Why the spelling with c- (sometimes) in British English?

e.g. in

- He said his name was Ashe with an ‘E’ he added quickly, and Leamas knew he
was lying. He pretended not to be quite sure that Leamas really was Leamas,
so over lunch they opened the parcel and looked at the National Insurance
card like, thought Leamas, a couple of cissies looking at a dirty postcard.
(John le Carre - The spy who came in from the cold)

'to destroy a large part of something'

Etymology: c. 1600, in reference to the practice of punishing mutinous military units by capital execution of one in every 10, by lot; from Latin decimatus, past participle of decimare "the removal or destruction of one-tenth," from decem "ten" (from PIE root *dekm- "ten"). The killing of one in ten, chosen by lots, from a rebellious city or a mutinous army was a common punishment in classical times. The word has been used (incorrectly, to the irritation of pedants) since 1660s for "destroy a large portion of."

Examples:

- However, upon the death of the Baron’s father, Dmitri Harkonnen, the old
Emperor had, through some mental deficiency, granted the seat of power to
the softhearted Abulurd, who had managed to decimate spice production in a
mere seven years. Profits plunged, and he lost control to smugglers and
sabotage. (Herbert - House Atreides)

- Prevented from linking with the land forces waiting to invade England from the Low
Countries, the Armada was forced to flee back to Spain the long way, around
the top of Scotland. Battle damage, bad weather and bad luck decimated what
was left of the fleet, and only 60 of the original 130-odd ships made it
home. (Coates - Dutch)

- The elders and the chiefs met to discuss what they could do about the
wasting disease that was quickly decimating their warriors. (Young - Shack)

call dibs = claim / reserve something (mainly US usage)

From: children's word to express a claim on something, 1915, originally U.S., apparently from earlier senses "a portion or share" and "money" (early 19c. colloquial), probably a contraction of dibstone "a knucklebone or jack in a children's game" (1690s), in which the first element is of unknown origin.

Examples:

- Seven hesitates to move, and since he’s hesitant, Sekani is too. But shoot, I want first dibs on a room. “Where are the bedrooms?” (Angie Thomas - The Hate U Give [recommended!])

- ‘Good idea!’ Tom exclaimed from his side of the table, where he was pushing
around some scrambled eggs. He looked like he hadn’t slept at all. ‘A
specialist, maybe! Just let me call Shorty the Chauffeur. Tina’s got dibs
on the Rolls for her tennis lesson at the country club, but I think the
Town Car is available.’ (King - Finders Keepers)

- “If this turns out to be a pagan sacrifice,” Sam said, “dibs I not be the
one to tell O’Kelly.” (French - In the Woods)

recent usage: "make a dent in" , "harm"

- In other words, it’s possible to float factually inaccurate statements and yet not ding your chances of confirmation,” Binder said.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2017/05/24/scientists-just-published-an-entire-study-refuting-scott-pruitt-on-climate-change/

- In addition, he said that the carrier expects passengers will share their experiences on social media, even ones that may ding the company’s armor.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/travel/youre-on-plane-a-situation-is-brewing-you-have-a-camera-do-you-press-record/2017/05/19/31d007e6-350b-11e7-b373-418f6849a004_story.html

blend of 'education' and 'entertainment'

Examples:

- But intertextuality is also reflected in the fluidity of genre boundaries and in the blurring of genres and their functions which is reflected in such recent coinages as ’advertorials’, ’infomercials’, ’edutainment’, ’docudrama’ and ’faction’ (a blend of ’fact’ and 'fiction'). (From a semiotics textbook).

By virtue of having one more letter than antidisestablishmentarianism, this is the longest non-technical English word. A mash up of five Latin roots, it refers to the act of describing something as having little or no value. While it made the cut in the Oxford English Dictionary, Merriam-Webster volumes refuse to recognize it, chalking up its existence to little more than linguistic ephemera.

Latin floccus (“a wisp”) +‎ naucum (“a trifle”) +‎ nihilum (“nothing”) +‎ pilus (“a hair”) + English -fication

Even more impressive, the output of one morphological rule can
be the input to another, or to itself: one can talk about the unmicro-
waveability of some French fries or a toothbrush-holder fastener box
in which to keep one's toothbrush-holder fasteners. This makes the
number of possible words in a language bigger than immense; like
the number of sentences, it is infinite. Putting aside fanciful coinages
concocted for immortality in Guinness, a candidate for the longest
word to date in English might be floccinaucinihilipilification, defined
in the Oxford English Dictionary as "the categorizing of something as
worthless or trivial." But that is a record meant to be broken:
floccinaucinihilipilificational: pertaining to the categorizing
of something as worthless or trivial
floccinaucinihilipilificationalize: to cause something to pertain
to the categorizing of something as worthless or trivial
floccinaucinihilipilificationalization: the act of causing some-
thing to pertain to the categorizing of something as worth-
less or trivial

"disaster, garbage, etc.. Similar to flop, flunk, blubber, etc.: pejorative meaning by association

E.g.

"exchangeable"

- It is consistent for two identical entities
to become different under deterministic and symmetrical laws. But, for that
to happen, they must initially be more than just exact images of each
other: they must be fungible (the g is pronounced as in 'plunger'), by
which I mean identical in literally every way except that there are two of
them. The concept of fungibility is going to appear repeatedly in my story.
The term is borrowed from legal terminology, where it refers to the legal
fiction that deems certain entities to be identical for purposes such as
paying debts. For example, dollar bills are fungible in law, which means
that, unless otherwise agreed, borrowing a dollar does not require one to
return the specific banknote that one borrowed. Barrels of oil (of a given
grade) are fungible too. Horses are not: borrowing someone's horse means
that one has to return that specific horse; even its identical twin will
not do. (Deutsch - Infinity)

- Sullivan basically ignored this question. The closest he came to an
explanation was a passage saying that “global economic forces” hurt
blue-collar workers in particular, forcing them to compete with lots of
other unskilled and basically fungible human beings around the world. (Taibbi - Insane Clown President)

- It is a sort of by-any-means-necessary, no-sin-is-too-grave, all-facts-are-fungible space in the moral universe where the rules of basic human decency warp.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/29/opinion/donald-trump-greg-gianforte.html

'person in charge', used in some dialects.

shortened from 'godfather'

Here: police commissioner (head of police department):

- Just for a second, like a fool, I get my hopes up. If a case comes in through the gaffer, instead of through our admin straight to the squad room, it’s because it’s something special. Something that’s going to be so  high-profile, or so tough, or so delicate, it can’t just go to whoever’s next on the rota; it needs the right people. One straight from the gaffer hums through the squad room, makes the lads sit up and take notice. One straight from the gaffer would mean me and Steve have finally, finally, worked our way clear of the losers’ corner of the playground: we’re in. (Tana French - The Trespasser [Dublin])

= gourmet = someone who likes to cook and eat good food

- And since I am a gastronome, I take deep pride in our
national dish. I have survived through famines and situations that were
much worse, but there, in that forsaken country where we didn't know what
was to become of us, it was the lack of kimchi that would bother me the
most. (Kim - Thousand Miles)

- I mean, I wish I were a gourmand or a club gastronomer, but, well,
you see the sort of meals I get!’ (He jabbed a finger into the corner,
where on a little table a small tin plate contained the remnants of a
horrible dish of beefsteak and potatoes.) (Dostoyevsky - Crime and Punishment)

'nonsense talk'

Note: it is the same suffix as in greenish, English, ticklish, thievish. Any other words like this with -ish?

in‧e‧luc‧ta‧ble /ˌɪnɪˈlʌktəbəl◂/ adjective formal  impossible to avoid syn unavoidable

Notice there is no word 'eluctable'!

"not to be escaped by struggling," 1620s, from French inéluctable (15c.) or directly from Latin ineluctabilis "unavoidable, inevitable," from in- "not, opposite of" (see in- (1)) + eluctabilis "that may be escaped from," from eluctari "to struggle out of," from ex "out, out of" (see ex-) + luctari "to struggle" (see reluctance).

Examples:

- The specifics of that chain of instantiations may be relevant to explaining
how the program reached you, but it is irrelevant to why it beat you:
there, the content of the knowledge (in it, and in you) is the whole story.
That story is an explanation that refers ineluctably to abstractions; and
therefore those abstractions exist, and really do affect physical objects
in the way required by the explanation. (Deutsch - Infinity)

- “Ah . . . we could . . .” His eyes flicked up, assessing our surroundings
for possible prospects of seclusion, then down again, ineluctably drawn to
the fan as though it were a magnet. (Gabaldon - Fiery Cross)

- Esterhazy snorted in derision. “Don’t waste your breath on empty threats.”
“Empty?” She smiled pleasantly. “It is a fact of nature as ineluctable as
the very turning of the earth.” (Preston/Child - Cold Vengeance)

- One view, which was dominant even among Democratic-leaning economists in the 1990s, saw rising inequality mainly as a result of ineluctable market forces. (https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/18/books/review/this-fight-is-our-fight-elizabeth-warren.html)

lep‧re‧chaun /ˈleprəkɔːn $ -kɑːn, -kɒːn/ noun

an imaginary creature in the form of a little old man, in old Irish stories

Etymology: from Irish lupracan, metathesis of Old Irish luchorpan literally "a very small body," from lu "little, small" (from PIE *legwh- "having little weight;" see lever (n.)) + corpan, diminutive of corp "body," from Latin corpus "body"

Examples:

- But begob I was just lowering the heel of the pint when I saw the citizen getting
up to waddle to the door, puffing and blowing with the dropsy, and he cursing the
curse of Cromwell on him, bell, book and candle in Irish, spitting and spatting out
of him and Joe and little Alf round him like a leprechaun trying to peacify him.  (Joyce - Ulysses)

- On the bottom step Wicklow crouched like a leprechaun reading a weighty
book by the aid of a mechanic’s light. (Carre - The Russia House)

mat‧tock /ˈmætək/ noun [countable]  a tool used for digging, with a long handle and a metal blade

- He was half laughing—from shock—when she suddenly seized a mattock from the
shed wall and made for him. Seriously alarmed, he ducked and grabbed her
wrist, twisting so she dropped the heavy tool with a thump. (Gabaldon - Echo)

- “The rest of that bit got bulldozed last week, but they left a patch round
the stone, because we didn’t want to risk the bulldozer hitting it. So
after the tea break Mark told me and Mel to go up there and mattock it back
while the others did the drainage ditch.” (French - In the Woods)

From 1992 used as a generational name for those born in the mid-1980s and thus coming of age around the year 2000.

Trademark (U.S.) Sept. 26, 1972, claiming use from 1971, but in print from Sept. 1970. Name coined by creator Jim Henson (1936-1990), who said, despite the resemblance to marionette and puppet (they have qualities of both), it has no etymology; he just liked the sound. (Ety)

- “Crazy old muppet,” she spits out and heads off towards the parking area. (Backman - Ove)

"a mammal of the weasel family (Mustelidae), distinguished by having a long body, short legs, and musky scent glands under the tail."

Etymology:

Example:

We could be looking at a rat, or a fox, except both of those would’ve probably
eaten the guts and stuff, not just the head. If it was an animal, I’m gonna
say probably a mustelid. Like stoats and mink, right? One of that family.
They’re into surplus killing.”
I said, “That was Detective Curran’s guess, too. Would a mustelid fit with
whatever was going on in the attic?” (French - Broken Harbour)

'nary' : hardly, none at all

1746, alteration of ne'er a, short for never a.

- The adjoining door eased open with nary a creak. Orange light from the candles spilled across Ravenwood’s chiseled face. She swallowed. (Ridley - The Duke's Accidental Wife)

- They discussed the day's lading schedule "unloading lumber and potassium from New Brunswick, loading rum and sugar bound for Boston", but nary a syllable was spoken of the volcano, even though its rumblings continued to make it impossible to ignore. (Cussler - Piranha)

ni‧hil‧is‧m /ˈnaɪəlɪzəm/ noun [uncountable]  

1 the belief that nothing has any meaning or value

2 the idea that all social and political institutions should be destroyed

- ‘A nihilist,’ pronounced Nikolay Petrovich. ‘That comes from the Latin
nihil, nothing, in so far as I can make out. So the word must mean a man
who… who acknowledges nothing, mustn’t it?’ (Turgenev - Fathers and Sons)

- Together with our communities, we can explore the possibility of moral reform. The
flexibility of morality does not condemn us to an anything-goes moral
nihilism. It frees us from intolerance and moral stagnation and allows us
to improve on what we have. (Prinz - Human nature)

'morbid fear of disease'

cf. nosology, 'science of diseases'

Ex.

- Both of them were associated with a religious movement: Hughes to the Mormons, and Fischer to the Worldwide Church of God. Of course, there were also differences. Fischer had no nosophobia and only little money. (Timman - Titans)

ob‧nox‧ious /əbˈnɒkʃəs $ -ˈnɑːk-/ adjective  

very offensive, unpleasant, or rude

1580s, "subject to the authority of another," from Latin obnoxiosus "hurtful, injurious," from obnoxius "subject, exposed to harm," from ob "to, toward" (see ob-) + noxa "injury, hurt, damage entailing liability" (see noxious). Meaning "subject to something harmful" is 1590s; meaning "offensive, hateful" is first recorded 1670s, influenced by noxious.

Examples:

- True, when forced to come out into the light a little,
people like Lloyd Blankfein proved to be jaw-droppingly
obnoxious douchebags who made you want to drive a fist through
your TV set. (Taibbi - Griftopia)

- Perpetua, slightly senior and therefore thinking she is in charge of me, was at her most obnoxious and
bossy, going on and on to the point of utter boredom about latest half-million-pound property she is planning to buy with her rich-but-overbred boyfriend, Hugo: 'Yars, yars, well it is north-facing but they've done something frightfully clever with the light.' (Fielding - Bridget Jones)

=oval, egg-shaped

"thick-skinned animal" (typically, an elephant)

/ˈpækɪdɜːm $ -dɜːrm/

'derm' as in pHisoderm

- A competing Tammany Hall exhibit several doors down boasted a live elephant—representing Republicans eating the city—but it looked to Bell like the anti-Tammany show was outdrawing the pachyderm four-to-one. (Clive Cussler and Justin Scott - The Gangster)

- Even the most stubborn pachyderm can be motivated when asked to consider the worst-case scenarios of not completing an estate plan. (Maurer - Simple Money)

fear of loud sounds

/sᵻˈfɒlədʒi/ (from Greek psephos ψῆφος, 'pebble', as the Greeks used pebbles as ballots) is a branch of political science which deals with the study and scientific analysis of elections

- He delighted in vague concepts, things that could be made specific in several ways, but were often better left
vague. He worked in many fields including: astronomy, cryptography, psephology, information retrieval, engineering, computing, education,
psychology, chemistry, pollution control, and economics. John Tukey was firmly associated with Princeton and Bell Labs. (From a book about statistics)

punc‧til‧i‧ous /pʌŋkˈtɪliəs/ adjective formal  

very careful to behave correctly and follow rules

'spark, glimmer' (related to 'shine'), especially in

"There is not a scintilla of evidence"

"to make the most outlandish and destructive claims without providing a scintilla of evidence to support them" - https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2017/03/04/trump-accuses-obama-of-nixonwatergate-plot-to-wire-tap-trump-tower/

Etymology (from etymonline.com):

also tabu, 1777 (in Cook's "A Voyage to the Pacific Ocean"), "consecrated, inviolable, forbidden, unclean or cursed," explained in some English sources as being from Tongan (Polynesian language of the island of Tonga) ta-bu "sacred," from ta "mark" + bu "especially." But this may be folk etymology, as linguists in the Pacific have reconstructed an irreducable Proto-Polynesian *tapu, from Proto-Oceanic *tabu "sacred, forbidden" (compare Hawaiian kapu "taboo, prohibition, sacred, holy, consecrated;" Tahitian tapu "restriction, sacred, devoted; an oath;" Maori tapu "be under ritual restriction, prohibited"). The noun and verb are English innovations first recorded in Cook's book.

Nothing to do with 'tuna'!, a kind of tree. Maybe the English word comes from Chinese?

Also spelled 'toon', 'tun'.

trow‧el /ˈtraʊəl/ noun [countable]  1 a garden tool like a very small spade

from Old French truele "trowel" (13c.), from Late Latin truella "small ladle, dipper" (mid-12c.), diminutive of Latin trua "a stirring spoon, ladle, skimmer."

- Apparently this gave him an idea: he
stuck his trowel into the ground, sat back on his haunches and pulled a
flattened smoke packet out of his jeans. (French - In the woods)

- On the grass near the tree Mary had dropped her trowel. Colin stretched out
his hand and took it up. An odd expression came into his face and he began
to scratch at the earth. His thin hand was weak enough but presently as
they watched him—Mary with quite breathless interest—he drove the end of
the trowel into the soil and turned some over. (Hodgson - The secret garden)

Cf. asymmetrical. What’s the difference?

Maybe see http://wikidiff.com/unsymmetrical/asymmetrical

Examples:

- As for symmetry: again, spiders are quite symmetrical, while some flowers, such as orchids, are very unsymmetrical, yet we do not find them any less attractive for that. So I do not think that symmetry, colour and contrast are all that we are seeing in flowers when we imagine that we are seeing beauty. (Deutsch - Infinity)

- Powered by liquid-fueled motors, the fuels and oxidizers in question were dangerous, corrosive chemicals—unsymmetrical dimethyl hydrazine and nitrogen tetroxide—and the fact that they were called “storable” liquids was a relative statement. (Clancy - All Fears)

'pass or cause to pass easily or gently through or as if through the air'

Examples:

- Mia introduces me to Hassan, who disappears into the bakery, leaving the door open so that the warm aroma of butter and vanilla waft into the morning air. (Gayle Forman - Where she went)

- Voice recorder in my face, phone clicking away in his other hand, waft of foul patchouli pomade off his hair – Crowley just about comes up to my nose. I manage not to shoulder the little bollix in the gob on my way past him; can’t be arsed with the paperwork. Behind me I hear Steve say (Tana French - The Trespasser)