This week's theme: verbs. dehisce (di-HIS) verb intr.
1. To burst open, as the pod of a plant. 2. To gape. [When a peapod is ripe after a long wait and bursts open, it's yawning, etymologically speaking. The term dehisce 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=dehisce -Anu Garg (garg AT wordsmith.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. Sponsored by: Perfect your fluency in French, German, Spanish or Italian with Champs-Elysees audio magazines. http://ads.champs-elysees.com/wsmith4 Ever wonder why we aren't just happy, we're happy as a clam? Derivation, a fascinating game about word & phrase origins. A great gift! http://entspire.com ............................................................................ I love being a writer. What I can't stand is the paperwork. -Peter De Vries, editor, novelist (1910-1993) Our privacy policy: AWAD mailing list addresses are never sold, rented, leased, traded, swapped, exchanged, or bartered. We hate junk mail. Remove, change address, gift subs: http://wordsmith.org/awad/subscriber.html Pronunciation: http://wordsmith.org/words/dehisce.wav http://wordsmith.org/words/dehisce.ram Permalink: http://wordsmith.org/words/dehisce.html This message was sent to "[email protected]".
