gibbous
Posted: Sun Aug 28, 2005 10:20 am
Thinking that that lovely (waning) gibbous moon shown to GWotD subscribers should not be denied fellow Agorists, I decided to post this GWotD from 30 July. Alas, I was unable to reproduce the original image, but I hope the one included here showing all the phases in succession will make up for my failure. While perhaps notas illustrative of the term «gibbous», it certainly merits the rubric «In Play» ! I should also like to ask if others also find the period «The woman's notably gibbous abdomen suggested that she had not overeaten but with a second soul.» strangely lacking in a second verbal in the subordinate clause ?...
Henri
Henri
• gibbous •
Pronunciation: gib-ês • Hear it!
Part of Speech: Adjective
Meaning: 1. Convex, rounded, protuberant, bulging. 2. Bent, hunched, hunched-backed.
Notes: We are offering today's Good Word in preference to its less lovely synonyms, such as hump-backed, bulging, or convex. It may be used adverbially in the form of gibbously or as either of the nouns gibbosity or the default, gibbousness. I have always felt sorry for the humpback whale; now I think of them as gibbous leviathans of the deep.
In Play:
O, gibbous moon! You've saved a Good Word!Today's Good Word has been preserved by astronomers, who use it to refer to moons. A gibbous moon is one bet
ween half and fully lit, when the lit portion bulges across the shadow. However, anything that bulges attracts this word's attention: "The woman's notably gibbous abdomen suggested that she had not overeaten but with a second soul." It is also often used to refer to a back that is bowed, "His father, now gibbous with age, struggled with a cane along the street."
Word History: Today's Good Word takes us back to Late Latin gibbus "hump-backed", the adjective of the noun gibbus "hump". The root here is related to Russian gibet' "to bend" and gibkij "flexible". It also turns up in Greek kuphos and Sanskrit kubya, both of which mean "bowed, humpbacked". The word for "humpbacked" in Hebrew is, interestingly enough, gibben, related to gahbnon "peak, summit", Aramaic gibhind "eye-brow", and Arabic jabin "side of the forehead". However, we would not like to speculate that Greek borrowed the root from Hebrew, which belongs to an entirely different language family (Semitic).
