Sunday, May 25, 2008

Cnidoblast

FreeRice is one of my favorite sites, as both a humanitarian and a writer. If you haven't been there yet, you answer vocab questions and for every one you get right, they donate 20 grains of rice to the UN World Food Program to end world hunger. Through a little knowledge of root words, minimal use of Dictionary.com, and a staggering amount of good luck, I've managed to reach level 47.

Around level 40, FreeRice runs out of world anyone will ever need to use and delves into the depths of scientific words, medical terms, and phrases that never before seen outside the pages of Jane Eyre. I've grapped with words I never heard of before (like copra, dried coconut meat), words I heard in conversation but didn't actually understand (like edification, education or betterment), even words that I needed to know for writing but never learned (like antipathetic, which is a good word to know when I have a character named Antipathy.) Sometimes it teaches me medical words I might never have heard otherwise (like axilla, meaning armpit), words that seem better suited to the perodic table of elements (like oroide, or false gold), and words that no one will ever use (like ghee, meaning clarified butter.) I've fought all these words and won to make it to level 47, and I've learned a lot about the ADD nature of the English langauge. However, I met my match when I came to this word.

cnidoblast means:
  • small explosion
  • large explosion
  • rash
  • cell type

Is it just me, or have the definition-writers developed a sense of humor?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

the sad thing is, I know so many of those useless words.

like "ghee"... i knew that one off of the top of my head.

Miri said...

See, I'm too fiction-ingrained for this stuff. To me, a Ghee will always be a dark-skinned warrior of the Batu tribe on the territory Zadaa.

Curse you, D.J. MacHale.