This week's theme: terms in the pattern an X's Y. friar's lantern (FRY-uhrz LAN-tuhrn) noun
A phosphorescent light seen over marshy ground at night, caused by spontaneous combustion of gases emitted by decomposing organic matter. A synonym is foxfire (not Firefox), especially for luminescence produced by fungi. [The first use of the term is in John Milton's 1632 poem L'Allegro: "She was pinched and pulled, she said; / And he, by Friar's lantern led."] Today's word in Visual Thesaurus: http://visualthesaurus.com/?w1=friar's+lantern -Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org) "Question: What do you get when you cross a firefly with a tobacco plant. Answer: A cigarette that lights itself. The joke quickly made the rounds after a group of genetic engineers in California earlier this month announced that they had transferred into the cells of a tobacco plant the gene that causes a firefly to glow. The tobacco plant seems to rise out of the page like a will-o'-the-wisp or friar's lantern." Chet Raymo; A Tale of a Firefly and a Tobacco Leaf; The Boston Globe; Nov 24, 1986. Sponsored by: Why aren't we just happy, we're happy as a clam? Orijinz, a new game about word and phrase origins. A great holiday gift! $12.95. http://entspire.com Discover new *super magnetic* Thinking Putty. It's the perfect stocking stuffer! Find out more: http://puttyworld.com?a=awad The perfect gift for the quirky geniuses on your list - check out the special offer on a year of mental_floss! http://www.mentalfloss.com/holidayspecial ........................................................................... Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us up, snow is exhilarating; there is really no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather. -John Ruskin, author, art critic, and social reformer (1819-1900) Share the magic of words. Send a gift sub: http://wordsmith.org/awad/gift.html Remove, change, or subscribe address: http://wordsmith.org/awad/subscriber.html Pronunciation: http://wordsmith.org/words/friars_lantern.wav http://wordsmith.org/words/friars_lantern.ram Permalink: http://wordsmith.org/words/friars_lantern.html
