This week's theme: words related to the eyes. spectral (SPEK-truhl) adjective
1. Pertaining to a light energy spectrum, usually the visible spectrum. 2. Pertaining to a ghost, wraith, or apparition. [From Latin spectrum (appearance), from Latin specere (to look at).] Today's word in Visual Thesaurus: http://visualthesaurus.com/?w1=spectral The visible spectrum of light is a range of energy from an incandescent source, measured in wavelengths, from red to violet. That oft-memorized acronymic fellow ROY G BIV reminds us that the colors of the visible spectrum, from longest wavelength to shortest wavelength, are Red - Orange - Yellow - Green - Blue - Indigo - and Violet. To be sure, there is an ultraviolet spectrum and an infrared spectrum, but the visible light that we see, as refracted through a prism, are the colors mentioned in the acronym. The appearance or apparition of a ghost gives us the lay term "spectral" as an adjective describing a wraith or a ghost. One therefore has to wonder: at what wavelength do ghosts reside? -Guest wordsmith Vincent de Luise, MD (eyemusic73ATaol.com) "Josh is an adult gripped by broken women, the memory of his dead mother, the spectral presence of his living-dead father and the oddity of messianic Judaism." Tod Goldberg; A Shipwrecked Life; The Los Angeles Times; Mar 26, 2006. Sponsored by: Monthly French, German, Italian and Spanish cultural audio magazines for intermediate-to-advanced learners. http://web.champs-elysees.com/wsmith1 And you? Reach more than half-million readers in this space -- contact us at sponsorsATwordsmith.org (replace AT with @). ............................................................................ Ink is handicapped, in a way, because you can blow up a man with gunpowder in half a second, while it may take twenty years to blow him up with a book. But the gunpowder destroys itself along with its victim, while a book can keep on exploding for centuries. -Christopher Morley, writer (1890-1957) Looking for word/quotation archives: http://wordsmith.org/awad/archives.html Unsubscribe, change address, etc: http://wordsmith.org/awad/subscriber.html Pronunciation: http://wordsmith.org/words/spectral.wav http://wordsmith.org/words/spectral.ram Permalink: http://wordsmith.org/words/spectral.html This message was sent to "[email protected]".
