learning words

[Jonathan Lighter]

There's also "hexagonal water," said to be really good for you by
sophisticated con persons:

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/03/chem-lab-hexago/

I saw it advertised on TV a few years ago.  Even the machine was
hexagonal for extra health.

JL

On Sat, Jul 31, 2010 at 11:00 AM, Paul Frank <paulfrank at post.harvard.edu>wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Paul Frank <paulfrank at POST.HARVARD.EDU>
> Subject:      learning words
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Learning new words is fun. The new word I learned this morning is
> "produced water." The NY Times explains: "Thousands of tons of
> produced water -- drilling byproduct that includes oil, grease and
> heavy metals -- are dumped into the gulf every year. The discharges
> are legal and regulated by the Environmental Protection Protection
> Agency." I may need to look up the word "regulated," but never mind.
> Another term I learned today is "dead water." And "hypoxic zone." The
> Times explains: "The nitrogen discharged into the Mississippi — 1.5
> million tons of it yearly, from fertilizer, as well as urban runoff
> and sewage plants -- creates a feeding frenzy among the phytoplankton
> when it enters the gulf. When the phytoplankton decompose, oxygen in
> the water is reduced so significantly that little life can exist. That
> man-made area of dead water, called a hypoxic zone, is second in size
> only to a similar zone in the Baltic Sea."
>
> Actually, I've had to look up lots of words in the dictionary while
> reading about the Gulf oil spill. For many words, my desk dictionary
> hasn't been much help: junk shot, top hat, riser insertion tube, shear
> ram, deadman switch, acoustic trigger, Loop Current, weathering
> (apparently the process that changes the oil into tar balls). And then
> there are half-forgotten words I've been reminded of: berm,
> dispersant, oil plume (I used to think that plumes were clouds of
> smoke or vapor, not clouds of oil in a large body of water), and to
> spud (to start drilling an oil well).
>
> Paul
>
> Paul Frank
> Translator
> German, French, Italian > English
> Rue du Midi 1, Aigle, Switzerland
> paulfrank at post.harvard.edu
> paul.frank at bfs.admin.ch
>
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