Draconian et. al.

Thank you http://www.fotosearch.com for the awesome photo. 🙂

Some intesting words I came across in an article  at Fortune Mag and defined by www.freedictionary.com,  www.merriam-webster.com and dictionary.reference.com. I own up to the examples. 🙂

1.  Draconian –  very harsh or severe as in He is serving a draconian punishment for just a petty offense.

2. Surfeit – intemperate or immoderate indulgence, disgust caused by excess as in He was surfeit of arrogance that people get annoyed by his presence.

3. Middling – Of medium size, position, quality or mediocre as in  Last year’s merit increases for rank and file were middling vis-a-vis two (2) years ago.

4. Annals – A record of events arranged in yearly sequence; historical events generally as in The team’s sweep of its games this season will surely go into the annals of sports history.

5. Denigrate – To belittle as in Among my New year’s Resolutions include not to denigrate people and their accomplishments.

6.  Grouse – Persistent complaint, also a kind of chicken or fowl- but let us steer clear of fauna.  No one likes a grouse.

7. Hubris – Arrogance as in His hubris was the apparent cause of his destruction.

 

Insidious

This is the first (and probably the last) time I’m ever going to mind this word … blame it on the movie.

At www.thefreedictionary.com, INSIDIOUS is defined as “beguiling but harmful; working or spreading harmfully in a subtle or stealthy manner”.

In the movie, this must refer to the way the spirits/ghosts/entities lurk and wait by a human body until his soul get really stuck in another universe (a dark and scary universe) and can’t come back.   When that time comes,  the spirit/ghost/entity can take over the human body and carry on as if it were his own. 

In a way, this is medidated reincarnation.

 

Supernova

A small portion of the Cygnus Loop supernova remnant, 1991. (Source: NatGeo)

According to Brighter Child: 

It is a massive star that ends its life with a huge explosion.  Such explosion occurs when the star begins to run out of fuel – it cannot resist the force of its own gravity and rapidly collapses in on itself.

There were supernova explosions observed in 1054, 1572, 1604 and 1987.  Also 1991, as shown above.

After a supernova explosion, the core of the star shrinks until it becomes a black hole.

Kriegspiel

According to the New Oxford American Dictionary:

It is a noun.

It is a war game in which blocks representing armies or other military units are moved about on maps.

Its origins can be traced to the late 19th century.

It is a combination of German words krieg “war” + spiel “game”

Special usage:  A form of chess in which each player has a separate board and can only infer the position of the opponent’s forces fromm limited information given by an umpire who disallows illegal moves.