nevus

naevus
(US nevus)

/ˈniːvəs/
noun
A birthmark or a mole on the skin, especially a birthmark in the form of a raised red patch.

Origin
Mid 19th century: from Latin.

Through the years, dermatologists have examined, photographed and occasionally excised dysplastic nevi from my back following the 1980 removal of a melanoma.

[In the US the pronunciation (by my doctors) is nee-vus.]

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phare

phare

/fɛː/
noun
rare
A lighthouse or beacon to guide ships at sea.

Origin
Late Middle English: from Latin pharus, from Greek pharos (see Pharos).

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To be fair, the phare fared only fairly well at its job. There were scores of shipwrecks dashed on the rocky point.

conversant

conversant

/kənˈvəːs(ə)nt/
adjective
predicative Familiar with or knowledgeable about something.

Origin
Middle English: from Old French, present participle of converser (see converse). The original sense was ‘habitually spending time in a particular place or with a particular person’.

The young wizard was surprisingly conversant with his trade, casting spells as easily as a veteran fisherman casts dry flies.

oversights

I just updated my recent reading page. I keep short notes about each book I read on that page to help me remember. Some books are less memorable than others these days, at least for me. At the same time, I noticed that the associated RSS feed page was not showing the dates correctly. I write my own XML file in a text editor, and I had improperly left off the year portion of the date field.

It was an oversight. In other RSS feed files, I was doing it correctly, but all during 2018, I had been forgetting to add that “2018” data.

Fortunately, the page worked in Firefox without the year component. I hope it worked in other people’s feed readers. I don’t know.

Nobody complained.

Was that an oversight, too?

hairslide

hairslide

/ˈhɛːslʌɪd/
noun
British

A typically bar-shaped clip or ornament for the hair.
North American term barrette

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Bonny boldly bore the bright barrette, blissfully unaware that the crowd on the London streets were admiring her hairslide.

murmur

murmur

/ˈməːmə/
noun
1 A low continuous background noise.
2 A softly spoken or almost inaudible utterance.
2.1 The quiet or subdued expression of a particular feeling by a group of people.
2.2 A rumour.
3 Medicine – A recurring sound heard in the heart through a stethoscope that is usually a sign of disease or damage.
verb
1 reporting verb Say something in a low or indistinct voice.
2 no object Make a low continuous sound.

Origin
Late Middle English: from Old French murmure, from murmurer ‘to murmur’, from Latin murmurare, from murmur ‘a murmur’.

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Sometimes a murmur
Sometimes a clamor
Often with bad grammar
Or even a hitching stammer.

It’s not quite like a hiss,
Something that I’d miss
No, more like an urge to piss
That’s the thing that’s this.

It’s impossible to ignore
Like a bedmate’s broken snore.
The result, your reading chore
With rhyme and beat galore.

antique

antique

/anˈtiːk/
noun
A collectable object such as a piece of furniture or work of art that has a high value because of its age and quality.
as modifier ‘an antique dealer’
adjective
1 Having a high value because of age and quality.
1.1 Intended to resemble the appearance of high-quality old furniture.
2 Belonging to ancient times.
2.1 Old-fashioned or outdated.
2.2 humorous Showing signs of great age or wear.
verb
1 with object Make (something) resemble an antique by artificial means.
2 usually go antiquing – North American no object – Search or shop for antiques.

Origin
Late 15th century (as an adjective): from Latin antiquus, anticus ‘former, ancient’, from ante ‘before’.

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Many times the WotD is an antiquated word, shared by one antique individual with MANY other like-minded codgers. We even recognize our CamelCase abbreviations, we’ve been at it so long, though maybe we do not know what CamelCase actually is.

Poetry at Indieweb

Crossing miles or crossing wires,
We share our words and our desires.
Posting here, embedding there
Many ways today to share.

This was also posted to
/en/indiewebpoetry.

THIS IS A TEST.
For the record, on the free version of WordPress.com blogging, webmentions appear to not function. There seem to be plugins available, but one must have an upgraded (paid) account on WordPress.com to install plugins.

For now, it seems this is not going to work.

rhythm

rhythm

/ˈrɪð(ə)m/
noun
1 A strong, regular repeated pattern of movement or sound.
1.1 mass noun The systematic arrangement of musical sounds, principally according to duration and periodical stress.
1.2 A particular pattern formed by musical rhythm.
1.3 mass noun A person’s natural feeling for musical rhythm.
2 mass noun The measured flow of words and phrases in verse or prose as determined by the relation of long and short or stressed and unstressed syllables.
3 A regularly recurring sequence of events or processes.
3.1 Art A harmonious sequence or correlation of colours or elements.

Origin
Mid 16th century (also originally in the sense ‘rhyme’): from French rhythme, or via Latin from Greek rhuthmos (related to rhein ‘to flow’).

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The WotD establishes a rhythm for my day. It sets my brain in motion for the rest of the day’s challenges.

[The words in the thought bubble are reminiscent of the song from a New England regional television show from the 1950s to the 80s, “Community Auditions”, a bit like today’s “______ Got Talent” competition shows. — “Star of the day, who will it be? Your votes will hold the key…”]

dicrotic

dicrotic

/dʌɪˈkrɒtɪk/
adjective
Medicine
Denoting a pulse in which a double beat is detectable for each beat of the heart.

Origin
Early 19th century: from Greek dikrotos ‘beating twice’ + -ic.

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While “dichrotic” is mainly a medical term, a double beat is a strong element of drum and bugle corps performances.