Sonata Vocab Lesson

I thought it would be interesting, now that I do a large amount of reading on the iPad where I can take notes, to capture some of the words that are either new to me, or that I just don't use very often.  Maybe do a bit of vocabulary building.

• Foveae - plural for a small cuplike depression or pit in a bone or organ.  For the purposes of Hydrogen Sonata, it specifically referred to "area consisting of a small depression in the retina containing cones and where vision is most acute".
• Fundament - I knew the use of this word meaning underlying principle.  I did not know it can simply refer to your bottom or anus (or a foundation).
• Evangelicalisation - not a real word.  But it's used in an article by Marsden about evangelizing military power under George Bush.  So you have to wonder if that's on purpose.  Seems to mean the process of turning something into an evangelical effort.
• Ructions - I knew this one, but never use it.  Quarrel, brawl, trouble.
• Nonary - seems obvious once you see a definition.  Relating to the number nine (9).
• Comms - I call this out only because I've seen Coms and Comms and I tend to use Comms when writing, but Erik H. uses Coms.  When I noticed that while proofing his book, I wondered where I'd gotten my spelling.  Perhaps from Banks.
• Timeously - timely.  I get this one confused with the mouse one: timorously.
• Punctilious - another one I know, but don't use.  Scrupulous.  Precise.  Attentive to detail.
• Funicular - moved by a cable or resembling a rope.  I usually think of this word as related to a hole, but perhaps that's because I'd use a rope to crawl out of a hole.
• sinecures - can't be a history major without knowing this word.  I'm just surprised at how seldom I've used it.  An office with little to no work, but it pays.  A favorite for the nepotism crowd.

Bifkin

I had a dream last night in which I had a black pet snake (whatever - my dreams are generally process oriented, not symbolic). The pet snake, realizing I paid more attention to dogs than to snakes, grew a poodle - also black - out of its mouth until the poodle was full formed, at which point the original snake bit dropped off like a residual tail, and the poodle came to life.

Seriously creepy, even for dream me. So I called in a herpetologist who examined the poodle, listened to my story, and proclaimed my snake was a bifkin, a species of animal which would evolve to a shape where it felt it was getting optimal food and attention. After that, the next lengthy chapter of the dream was me looking extremely nervous and wondering when the bifkin was going to change into some version of me by growing a human body out of a poodle's mouth.

I'm sure the snake dream is a result of reading The Red Queen book about evolutionary pressure and parasites. But bifkin? I had to look it up. It's a synonym...for perineum. I don't believe I've ever consciously heard or read the word before. But now my dream has educated me with a new word for taint that was previously outside my vocabulary. I think the instructor who told Ming and I to open a dictionary more often would be proud.

perineum /peri·ne·um/ (-ne´um)

1. the pelvic floor and associated structures occupying the pelvic outlet, bounded anteriorly by the pubic symphysis, laterally by the ischial tuberosities, and posteriorly by the coccyx.

2. the region between the thighs, bounded in the male by the scrotum and anus and in the female by the vulva and anus.