This week's theme: words from the plant kingdom. indehiscent (in-di-HIS-uhnt) adjective
Not bursting open at maturity. [When a peapod is ripe after a long wait and bursts open, it's yawning, etymologically speaking. The term indehiscent comes from Latin dehiscere (to split open), from hiscere (to gape, yawn), from Latin hiare (to yawn). Another term that derives from the same root is hiatus.] Today's word in Visual Thesaurus: http://visualthesaurus.com/?w1=indehiscent -Anu Garg gargATwordsmith.org "Garrison Keillor: Rhubarb is a vegetable, no matter what the government says: a member of the buckwheat family of herbaceous plants including buckwheat, dock, and smartweed, which are characterized by having swollen joints, simple leaves, small petalless flowers, and small, dry, indehiscent fruit. Indehiscent means 'not dehiscent', not opening at maturity to release the seed. So 'indehiscent' means 'hard, dry, holding onto the seed', which actually describes Norwegians quite well. Most Norwegians consider dehiscence to be indecent. They hold the seed in. But rhubarb pie comes along in the spring, when we're half crazed from five months of winter -- it's the first fresh vegetable we get, and it makes us dehisce." Carol Stocker; Rediscovering Rhubarb; Boston Globe; May 16, 1996. Next week: Autumn contributing membership drive. Sponsored by: Shop early for a stocking stuffer that can't be beat: Crazy Aaron's Thinking Putty! Discover adult-sized handfuls and fun colors: http://puttyworld.com Critics are raving! But we like it anyway. WordPlay Cafe, 128 full-color pages of food for your noodle. http://amazon.com/o/asin/0824967534/dogfoosecom-20 Like wordplay? Get "The Giant Book of Animal Jokes: Beastly Humor for Grownups" by Richard Lederer & James Ertner from http://stoneandscott.com ............................................................................ The most certain test by which we can judge whether a country is really free is the amount of security enjoyed by minorities. -Lord Acton (John Emerich Edward Dalberg-Acton), historian (1834-1902) Looking for a word/quotation previously featured in AWAD? Archives are at http://wordsmith.org/awad/archives.html Pronunciation: http://wordsmith.org/words/indehiscent.wav http://wordsmith.org/words/indehiscent.ram Permalink: http://wordsmith.org/words/indehiscent.html This message was sent to "[email protected]".
